1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to treadmills, and more particularly to treadmills with adjustable cushioning members to manually, adjustably cushion the impact when a user is operating the treadmill.
2. Present State of the Art
Treadmills have become increasingly popular in recent years as a piece of exercise equipment. Treadmills can be used for either running or walking indoors such as at home or in the office. Most exercise treadmills include an exercise platform that includes an elongated frame with a first and second roller assembly mounted across opposite lateral ends of the frame. An endless belt is mounted for travel about the roller assemblies. The belt is flexible and unable to rigidly support the weight of the user. The belt is usually supported by a deck that is disposed between the upper portion of the belt and the frame. The deck is usually made of rigid material. The belt is controlled by a motor. As the user walks or runs on the belt, the belt is pressed against the underlying deck to provide mechanical support for a user.
In some types of treadmills, the decks were directly affixed to the frame to provide rigid support. As a result, the shock from the user""s step is reflected by the deck back to the foot, ankle and leg of the user in a similar manner as the reactive forces are imposed on a walker, a jogger or a runner exercising on a hard-paved surface or a sidewalk. Over long periods of time, the shock experienced by the user can have detrimental effects to the joint of the user. Even in the short term, exercising on a rigid surface may prove to be tiring and jarring to a user. Attempts have been made to provide a way to cushion the impact felt by the user on the treadmill while still providing a rigid support surface for the belt and exerciser.
One method of attempting to cushion the impact felt by the user is to provide an intricate shock absorbing system which was attached to both the frame and the deck. The intricate shock absorbing system, however, is difficult to manufacture and cost prohibitive. Another attempt to provide cushioning to the user has been attaching rubber blocks or cushioning strips mounted along the length of the frame prior to mounting the deck to the frame. One problem with the rubber blocks or cushioning strips mounted between the deck and frame is that the blocks did not deform equally between users having different weights. As a result, for some users there was insufficient cushioning and with another user the treadmill was too soft. Another method of providing cushioning on treadmills is the use of several elastomeric springs that are positioned between the frame and the deck. The elastomeric springs were intended to provide an amount of resistance that is proportional to the extent that the deck deflected in response to a user exercising.
As recognized with the use of rubber blocks, users that have differing weights do not obtain the same amount of deflection of the deck and therefore need differing amounts of cushioning. In addition, the amount of cushioning that is desired may depend upon the exercise that is being performed on the treadmill. For instance, a user who is running on the treadmill will most likely need more cushioning than a user who is walking on the treadmill. In addition, there is often just a difference of personal taste in the amount of cushioning that is desired. Some users may prefer to exercise on a firmer surface while others would prefer to exercise on a surface with a great deal of cushion. One attempt to provide a treadmill that could provide individualized cushioning required physically removing strips of cushioning material and inserting other strips into the treadmill. This was time consuming and awkward.
What is needed is a treadmill in which a user may manually adjust the amount of cushioning that will be provided without having to disassemble and remove pieces of the treadmill.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a treadmill with a cushioning mechanism that can be conveniently manually adjusted to provide differing amounts of cushioning to a user exercising on the treadmill.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a treadmill that can be conveniently adjusted to provide differing amounts of cushioning without disassembling the cushioning mechanism.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a treadmill with a cushioning mechanism that can be conveniently adjusted to provide differing amounts of cushioning depending on the different type of exercises to be performed on the treadmill.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a treadmill with a cushioning mechanism that can be selectively adjusted to provide differing amounts of cushioning based on individual preferences.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or maybe learned by the practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention maybe realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the foregoing objects, and in accordance with the invention as embodied and broadly described herein a treadmill with an adjustable impact absorbing mechanism is provided. The impact absorbing mechanism is configured to adjustably cushion the impact to a user who is exercising on the treadmill. The adjustable impact absorbing mechanism allows the user to select the amount of cushioning that will be provided while the user is exercising on the treadmill by manually adjusting the impact absorbing mechanism to individualize the amount of cushioning for a specific user as well as for a particular type of exercises.
The treadmill comprises a frame and an endless belt trained on the frame. The belt has an upwardly exposed exercise section. A deck is disposed between the exercise section of the belt and the frame. The treadmill also comprises a plurality of cushioning members each having a plurality of portions with different cushioning properties. The cushioning members are positioned on opposing sides of the frame. The cushioning members are configured to be adjusted so as to selectively position a portion of the cushioning members between the frame and the deck. The cushioning members are mechanically interconnected such that movement of one of the cushioning members results in corresponding movement of the other of the cushioning members.
An embodiment with an adjustable flexible cantilever is also provided. The cantilever comprises a flexible arm and a bumper. The arm has one end mounted to the frame and the other end freely disposed from the frame. The bumper extends between the free end of the arm and the deck. The cantilever also included a brace mounted to the frame adjacent to the cantilever. The brace can be selectively moved along the length of the cantilever.
These and other objects and features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter.